This application is related to Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-23867 filed on Jan. 31, 2002, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inside/outside air switching device using a rotary door, for a vehicle air conditioner. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated inside/outside air case in which the rotary door is assembled.
2. Background of the Invention
In an air conditioner for an automotive vehicle, it has much requirement to reduce air blowing noise caused by operating the air conditioner. In this aspect, it is considered that a reduction of an air suction loss (i.e., an air suction resistance) of an air blower in the air conditioner makes an increase of an air blowing volume and a reduction of the air blowing noise. To reduce the air suction loss, an opening area of an air suction port in an inside/outside air switching device, which is located at an inlet side of the air blower, should be expanded.
For expanding the opening area of the air suction port in the inside/outside air switching device, it is proposed that a rotary door is used for the inside/outside air switching device, instead of a flat plate door.
FIGS. 11 and 12 show an inside/outside air switching device using a rotary door 126 according to a related art. In the switching device shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, it is necessary that a case 120 is divided into left and right cases 120a, 120b, when the rotary door 126 is assembled into the case 120. Further, an entire width of the rotary door 126 shown in FIG. 12 is larger than the inner width of the case 120. Therefore, the case 120 is divided into the right and left cases 120a, 120b, and the rotary door 126 is inserted between the right and left cases 120a, 120b. Accordingly, in order to obtain a sealing performance, the switching device has a complex structure due to the divided cases 120a, 120b. As a result, production cost of the switching device is increased, and the number of assembling steps for assembling the switching device is increased.
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide an inside/outside air switching device with a rotary door for a vehicle, wherein the rotary door is readily assembled into an integrated case.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an inside/outside air switching device with a rotary door, which improves sealing performance with a simple structure.
According to the present invention, an inside/outside air switching device includes an integrated case, and a rotary door assembled into the integrated case. The case has an inside port from which air inside a passenger compartment is introduced, and an outside port from which air outside the passenger compartment is introduced. The rotary door includes a circumference wall rotatable around a rotation axis, first and second shafts provided on the rotation axis at two end sides of the circumference wall in the rotation axis, two side plates connected to the circumference wall and the first and second shafts at the two end sides of the circumference wall in the rotation axis, and a seal member disposed on peripheral surfaces of the circumference wall and the side plates. The case has therein a sealing surface protruding from a position between the inside port and the outside port to an inner side, and the sealing surface defines a first space at a side of the inside port and a second space at a side of the outside port in the case. In the inside/outside air switching device, the seal member of the rotary door is disposed to be elastically deformable and to press-contact the sealing surface, the sealing surface has an end at a side away from the inside port in the case, and the end of the sealing surface is separated from a wall surface of the case by a clearance. Further, the clearance is set to have a predetermined dimension so that the seal member of the rotary door is movable from the first space to the second space through the clearance while the rotary door is assembled into the case from the inside port. Accordingly, the rotary door can be readily assembled into the integrated case, without dividing the case into plural division case parts. As a result, air-sealing performance can be improved with a simple structure, number of assembling steps for assembling the inside/outside air switching device can be reduced, and product cost of the inside/outside air switching device can be reduced.
Preferably, a link for driving the rotary door is disposed integrally with at least the first shaft. In this case, the first shaft extends inside in the rotation axis from the side plate of the rotary door, and the first shaft has an engagement hole into which a protrusion shaft portion of the link is fitted from an outside of the first shaft. Therefore, the dimension of the rotary door in the rotation axis can be readily set smaller than an inner dimension of the case in the rotation axis, and the rotary door can be readily assembled in the integrated case.
Further, the case can have an air introduction port from which air inside the passenger compartment is introduced, and the air introduction port is provided at a position different from the inside port to be opened and closed by at least one of the side plates of the rotary door. In this case, an inside air suction area is increased in the case, and an air flowing amount in an inside air mode can be effectively increased.
When the inside/outside air switching device is used for an air conditioner of a vehicle, an air conditioning unit is disposed inside a dashboard of the vehicle at an approximate center in a vehicle width direction, and the case and the blower are disposed inside the dashboard to be offset from the air conditioning unit in the vehicle width direction to a front-passenger""s seat side. In this case, the air introduction port can be provided at a side near the air conditioning unit to be opened and closed by one of the side plates of the rotary door, and the other one of side plates is provided at a side opposite to the air conditioning unit. Alternatively, the second inside port is provided at a side opposite to the air conditioning unit to be opened and closed by one of the side plates of the rotary door, and the other one of the side plates is provided at a side near the air conditioning unit.